The present invention relates to a device for cleaning teats of a milking animal, and means for cleaning of such devices. The invention also relates to a method of cleaning teat cleaning devices.
When dairy animals are to be milked it is necessary to first clean the teats of the animal to avoid dirt present on the teats from contaminating the collected milk. It is also desirable, and even a legal requirement in some countries, to pre-milk the teats. By pre-milking is meant the first phases of milking in which:
the teat is stimulated in order to stimulate the milk ejection reflex and induce milk letdown; and
the milking is started and the first drops of milk are collected separately for inspection and/or discarded in order to prevent contaminants on or inside the teat from being transported into the rest of the milking machinery.
During pre-milking it is desirable that the whole of the milk contained in the teat is extracted. This milk can then be inspected for signs of disease or contamination. By inspecting the pre-milk infections, diseases and inflammations, e.g. mastitis, can be detected. Milk that for some reasons is considered to be of insufficient quality must not be mixed with the good milk in the milk cooling tank, and is thus discharged to a milk dump or sewer system.
It is known from EP-A-0 527 509 to use a teat cup containing water to clean the teat and then to use the same teat cup for milking. This requires extremely thorough, time consuming cleaning of the teat cup between the cleaning phase and the milking phase.
EP 0 536 837 discloses an implement of milking animals comprising a cleaning device for teat cleaning. This cleaning devise includes two horizontal spaced apart rollers, which are profiled so as to clean a teat present there between by rotation of the rollers. This cleaning device is, in turn, cleaned between the cleaning of two animals in a second cleaning device. The second cleaning device comprises a box, situated remote from the milking animal, into which box the rollers are inserted. The rollers are rotated against brushes inside the box and are at the same time sprayed with a cleaning fluid. The proposed arrangement makes it difficult to clean two teats of the same animal separately, due to the open structure of the teat cleaning device and the bulky protruding rollers.
PCT/SE98/02224 shows a combined teat cleaning and pre-milking device, having teat cleaning means inside a teat cup. It is not prescribed in the application how to clean the proposed device itself, however.
Milking of dairy animals is performed at least twice a day, and in so called voluntary milky systems perhaps three or four times a day. Even animals that for some reason temporarily are producing milk that is unusable as a dairy product, must be milked. It is hence important to maintain a high quality hygiene in the milking facility. Furthermore, diseases or inflammations such as mastitis does not necessarily relate to all milk from the animal, but only to one teat, or the milk therefrom. Theoretically three quarters of the milk may thus be acceptable. Even though no milk from such an animal is used, due e.g. to legislation, spreading the disease, inflammations, etc. to the other teats of the animal may lead to a prolonged time period, during which the animal does not produce milk of sufficient quality, and thus is not commercially profitable.
It is thus an aspect of the invention to provide a device and a method for teat cleaning with a minimised risk for spreading of infections from one teat to another of the same animal, overcoming the known deficiencies of the prior art. It is further desirable to fulfil this object without the need of any active cleaning means, in addition to the teat cleaning means.
An aspect of this object is to provide the means and methods for minimising the risk for spreading of diseases between teats with minimal time delay on the teat cleaning process.
The above mentioned objects are fulfilled by a teat cleaning arrangement comprising a teat cleaning device with a teat cleaner or xe2x80x9cteat cleaning means,xe2x80x9d a robot with a robot front end devised to move the teat cleaning device into engagement with a teat, and controls or xe2x80x9ccontrol meansxe2x80x9d connectable to the robot for controlling motion thereof, and to the teat cleaning device for controlling the teat cleaning means, and engagement and disengagement with a teat. According to the invention the control means are devised to activate the teat cleaning means to clean the cleaning device after each teat disengagement.
In a preferred embodiment, the teat cleaning device is a teat cup, also used for pre-milking. The cleaning means preferably comprise a nozzle connected to a cleaning fluid supply, and the nozzle is devised to inject cleaning fluid at high speed, swirling around a teat inserted in the teat cup for cleaning purposes. The same cleaning means and procedure is thus used to clean the teat cup itself when disengaged from a teat, before connection to another teat. In a preferred embodiment a cover is placed closely over a teat receiving opening of the teat cup, when cleaning the teat cup. The cover is designed to direct fluid from the nozzle to the outside of the teat cup, in order to clean any outer surface of the teat cleaning device that has been in contact with the animal.